Pioneering The Abstract: Introducing Nikei Fine Art
PUBLISHED November 20th, 2012 12:41 am | UPDATED January 21st, 2016 08:13 am
16th-century Florence; 21st-century Singapore.
Both city-states. Both centres of socio-economic progress within their regions.
Both at the pinnacle of their existence. Both with an expanding cultural arts.
Both, as the Japanese ambassador to Singapore Yoichi Suzuki added, have people with the bubbly proclivity to food and eating.
These were some of the reasons stated by Hiroshi Kato, art afficionado turned gallery owner, as the long-anticipated answer to the ubiquitous question of ‘Why Singapore?’ as he presided over the grand opening of his new art gallery, Nikei Fine Arts.
Last month saw the official opening of this new gallery, graced with the presence of His Excellency Yoichi Suzuki as guest of honour. Situated in the Raffles Hotel Arcade, this new art gallery is a unique addition to the flourishing art scene in Singapore in that it specifically focuses on abstract art made by artists from south east asia, specifically Japan. It boasts works from Japan’s premium abstract artists, namely Toko Shinoda, Nuit Sano, Kukoky Tamura. It also hosts a variety of southeast asian countries, including Singapore’s Terence Teo, and some abstract artists out of South East Asia like the Japanese-influenced Belgian artist Jean-Paul Decroix. Hiroshi explained that the art he chooses to be part of his gallery rare the ones that exude a sense of calm and serenity, nothing too loud or grandiose, but rather, his taste lies in the magnificence of simplicity, like the way the sound of the quiet shore waters lap the sand can cause one to fall into a deep, tranquil calm.
The gallery welcomes you with the blue magic of Nuit Sano’s creation, constructing this seashore fantasy, pulling one with calmness not from ears, but this time,from eyes. Then it takes you the minimalist expressions of Toko Shinoda and Kukoky Tamura,lining the walls like elegant sentinels. Into an inner room, the wonderful works of Jean-Paul Decroix, Ryo Yoshikawa and Jun Ogata are exhibited, whisking you away into a world of colors and feeling of senses with eyes. Of course, the exhibition’s centrepiece was Yumiko Sakurai’s heart-warming stained glass, soft in hues and glittering under the light, like a pale-faced moon maiden bringing music to one’s senses, both cool and warm, like a draught the freshest of spring water.
Yumiko Sakurai, the featured artist of Nikei Fine Art’s grand opening, was the oil painting grad of Joshibi University of Art and Design who turned to stained glass near the end of her school years. Yumiko’s stained glass is distinguished from other more traditional European stained glass because of the artist’s choice of color combination. There’s a subtle warmth and serenity packed within the pieces she makes, meticulously done with glass or acrylic and molded with soldered iron. When asked on the change of heart, she explained that as she went through her school years doing oil, she realized that her heart wasn’t in it. It was after her mother suggested trying out stained glass that she decided to talk to another university professor regarding this new form of art and started putting her hands on it. The rest, as they say, was a love story marked in history.
Yumiko gathers inspiration from everyday things and everyday moments in life. A keen observer of the world around her, the art that she makes is a representation of all the bursts of inspiration she finds from her environment. She has a particular proclivity to warm colors. Her art is mainly very conceptual, born with colors inspired by the certain concept in her mind. She had met Hiroshi Kato a few times during various exhibitions in the past and, being quite taken by her art, Mr. Kato acquired a few of her works. Her art apparently never left Mr. Kato’s mind as her art now represented the grand opening of his biggest ambition, Nikei Fine Art.
Founder and brainchild of the gallery, Hiroshi Kato himself graduated from Keiko University studying Art History, raised with an innate love for the arts, having been raised by two generations of artists. Retiring from his family business of selling car parts, he finally turned to his first love, his passion for the arts, and decided to build his new gallery in Singapore, a feat marvelously completed within 4 months. He named the gallery after his only daughter, Nikei Kato, who shares this dream by managing over the business.
His dream is to create a platform for south east asian artists, especially japanese artists, to present their art to the international audience and create appreciation to this kind of art, specifically asian abstract art. Hiroshi’s love for the abstract lies in the universality of its concept, that no matter the age, race, or nationality, such works of art can touch hearts and move people. 24 October marked the day that this dream comes to fruition. Walking through the halls of the Nikei Fine Art abode, one can’t help but indeed be captured into worlds of colors, lines and texture, each piece whispering a word, conversing with words that use no alphabets, but move through one’s heart like music, natural, rhythmic and enclosed with many meanings.
The Nikei Fine Art gallery opened its doors for the soft launch on the 15th of August until the 4th of November, named Kaomise, a traditional term in Japanese Kabuki meaning ‘first showing’. The soft opening already garnered 26 sold abstract pieces. Its next current exhibition is Joy Forever: A Christmas Surprise from Nikei, launched on the 7th of November, featuring mother-and-son artistic tandem, Mineko and Masaki Kondo.
With Nikei Fine Art in tow, Singapore is indeed fast becoming the 21st century Florence.
